Poe: Nevermore by Rachel Martens

of the ninth circle of Hell as frozen over. For my last show of defiance, I spat in his face and asked, “How does it feel not to be feared?” Grimacing and leering like some kind of enraged beast, Mr. Aaron wiped the spit off his face and screamed at me, “For what I care, you can join your damned parents in Hell!” Then, he hooked my ankle with his leather shoe and shoved me, tripping me back… …And sending me careening down the basement stairs. I flung out my arms instinctively and felt my fingertips graze against the walls. My left hand caught the railing, but I felt my feet slip over the stair and toppled backward, my own weight wrenching my hand free. I went straight backwards, catching a step in my tailbone, then knocking the back of my head against the wall before rolling on down. It was a miracle the stairs were thinly carpeted, or unconsciousness and death would have been instant. My legs continued over me, sending me tumbling down faster. I tried to regain some form of balance and ended up twisting myself into a barrel-roll down, my face scraping on the stairs and crunching my nose into the steps. I tried to protect my head with one arm and grab onto the stairs with the other, but couldn’t slow the fall. Finally, I landed flat on my back on the concrete floor. My head came down on the concrete with a sickening thud despite my arm over my head and my hand on the back of my skull. The fingers screamed in pain and I thought a few might be broken. I could hear Mrs. Aaron sc